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21st Century Skills- Challenges Ahead
21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead
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Teaching for the 21st Century
A Brief Comparison
Corey S. Walker
University of New England
References
1) Willingham, D., & Rotherham A. (2009) www.ASCD.org. Retrieved 1/20/11 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/
2) Roscorla, T (2009) convergemag.com. Retrieved 1/24/11 from http://www.convergemag.com/workforce/Teaching-for-the-21st-Century.html
21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead, by Rotherham and Willingham is an article on the obstacles and challenges they believe the 21st Century Skills Movement is going to have in their effort for educational reform. Rotherham and Willingham don’t seem to fully dismiss the 21st Century Skills Movement as just another fad or passing movement. They do however feel if the movement does not include three integral parts that must work together harmoniously, then the movement will not accomplish anything and may in fact “sacrifice long term gains for the appearance of short term progress.” (Rotherham & Willingham 2009) According to Rotherham and Willingham, the three elements that are essential for the 21st Century Skill Movement to succeed are better teachers, better curriculum and better testing.
Despite great new tools and ways of teaching knowledge and skills the article says many schools today are lacking really skilled teachers engaging students and teachers are not using problem based teaching methods enough. Rotherham and Willingham also believe many schools are lacking modern curriculums that make students able to connect what they are learning in classrooms to real life issues and problems. Good testing practices also seem to be a struggle for education systems, mostly due to financial constraints.
This article was interesting, it reinforced many of the beliefs I had myself about what we need to teach and how to teach our children. At work when I am teaching I try to make real life connections with what is going on in the classroom as often as possible. I also try to fully embrace what technology has to offer and I encourage my students to do the same. I also believe collaboration between students is important for learning, but must be closely supervised because I have found few students can carry the load of many. I have not tried to collaborate myself with other teachers much. I can see the potential and the important benefits a class can gain from doing this. I have a friend who teaches social studies in collaboration with another teacher at Freeport High School and they both find it beneficial for them and the students.
The other article I read is called ‘Teaching for the 21st Century’, by Tanya Roberts. This was a small article on some of the practices of teaching 21st century skills. Tanya Roberts also feels that problem based learning or project based learning can be very beneficial to students. Roscorla says “If teachers mix career oriented projects into classrooms, they will help students master core subjects and learn skills including communication, problem solving, critical thinking, global awareness, financial literacy and technology.” (Roscorla 2009)
Roscorla seems agree with Rotherham and Willingham that we are not exactly teaching a lot of brand new things to students, “it’s not a whole new path that teachers need to figure out how to teach” -”It really is something that you bring into what you’re already doing in the classroom.”(Roscorla 2009) All writers feel there we should be teaching students more about the global economy and teaching global skills than we do now.
The writers seem to have a difference of opinion in the idea of whether skills and knowledge are separate entities to themselves or as Rotherham and Willingham say it”Skills and knowledge are not separate, however, intertwined.”(Rotherham & Willingham 2009) Roscorla seems to emphasize importance of conceptual learning where Rotherham and Willingham mention we must be careful not to start conceptual learning to early and in fact we must still have the students learn basic knowledge of different courses so that with exposure to varied examples of things can we only then be able to learn and think conceptually.